What is space, really?
by Johannes Scherzer | April 16, 2025We design it, measure it, feel it—but do we really understand how we experience space? In this article, I explore space not as a fixed geometry or passive container but as something emergent, perceptual, and relational, shaped through body, atmosphere, objects, and cultural context. Drawing on my sound design practice in scenographic projects and artistic research within the context of spæs lab for spatial aesthetics in sound, this piece invites a shift in thinking about space. It’s less about defining space once and for all, and more about opening up the question: What kind of spaces are we actually creating?
Space is everywhere. We walk through it, live it, talk about it. We sit in spaces, perform in them, feel at home in them—or not. Entire creative disciplines revolve around shaping space: urban planning, architectural design, set design, interior design, lighting design, exhibition design, sound scenography.
And yet, the more I work with space, the more elusive it becomes. What exactly are we designing when we “stage a space”? Is it the walls, the acoustics, the light? The social codes? The mood? The stories we carry with us?
This question has followed me across years of practice in spatial audio and scenographic sound. It was sharpened in many places—in the exhibitions and so-called immersive experiences to which I have contributed with my sound practice, in dance performances, swimming pools, trains, forests, underground walkways, and in the studio. And it has been shaped by my involvement at spæs lab through discussions, listening sessions, field trips, and critical exchange.
What follows is not a final definition of space but a working conception—a way of thinking that has grown within the practice-based research environment of spæs. It proposes a shift in how we talk about space: away from static geometries or passive containers and toward a view of space as emergent, perceptual, and relational—not a thing we step into but a phenomenon we co-create.
The Trouble with Traditional Views of Space
Much of our language about space still draws from architecture and geometry. We talk about “volumes,” “surfaces,” “voids,” or “layouts.” In media and design, space often appears as a neutral container—an empty box waiting to be filled with objects, people, or experiences. Even the idea of “staging space” sometimes implies that space is a passive backdrop while the “real action” happens elsewhere.
This model—space as container—is powerful. It’s intuitive, measurable, and built into most design software tools. But it also misses something fundamental: how space is felt, interpreted, inhabited, and co-produced by perception.
One recurring issue is sensory hierarchy. In many spatial practices, especially in exhibition and media design, vision still dominates. Sound and other modalities are often treated as add-ons—atmospheric, supportive, secondary. But space is never purely visual, just as it’s never purely physical. We don’t just see space; we listen to it, move through it, remember it, dream it. We feel its temperature, its rhythm, its pressure.
The same room can feel entirely different depending on what we hear, what we expect, or who we’re with. And that difference isn’t secondary—it’s central. It shapes how we behave, interpret what’s around us, and make meaning in place.
So when we design “immersive” experiences—or curate spatial situations—it’s not enough to think about material configuration alone. We need models that account for how space comes into being through perception—across senses, through time, and within cultural context.
Space as Emergent Perception
If space isn’t just a physical container, what is it?
Through my work in scenographic sound and spatial media, I’ve come to think of space not as something that’s there—waiting to be filled—but as something that happens. Space, in this view, is not given. It emerges. It emerges through perception, through the body, through interpretation.
This shift builds on ideas from phenomenology, particularly the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who argued that perception is never disembodied. We don’t just think about the world—we live it from within through movement, sensation, and relational awareness. We don’t simply encounter a room; we orient ourselves within it, navigate its affordances, and feel its resistance.
Building on that, philosopher Gernot Böhme introduced the concept of atmosphere—not as decoration or mood but as a real aesthetic phenomenon. When we perceive space, we don’t directly register surfaces and volumes—we sense the atmosphere objects radiate: its tone, its pressure, its vibration. This atmosphere is how a space feels. It arises between objects and bodies but is not reducible to either.
More recently, sound scholars like Grimshaw and Garner have offered a compelling perspective on what they call sonic virtuality. They argue that what we perceive as “sound” is actually a synthesis between external vibration (exosonic) and internal interpretation (endosonic)—memory, expectation, emotion, imagination. Crucially, they propose that physical sound waves are inherently meaningless, in contrast to the internal component that makes sound meaningful.
We can extend that idea beyond sound. We don’t just hear this way—we also see this way, touch this way, remember this way. We don’t passively receive sensory data. We construct experience through perception, and space is no exception.
So when I say space is emergent, I mean this: space is not simply what surrounds us. It is what emerges between sensory input and interpretation, between matter and meaning, between the world and the body. It is cross-modal, culturally mediated, and deeply relational.
Why This Matters for Design, Sound, and Experience
If space emerges through perception, then every element we design—visual, acoustic, material, or symbolic—shapes how space is experienced. This has significant consequences for how we think about design, especially in fields that work with immersive environments, sound, or spatial storytelling.
Sound is not just “in” space—it actively produces it. A drone in a gallery can stretch the perceived volume. A whispered voice can collapse distance. As we know from audio dramas, sound alone can construct entire worlds. In scenographic contexts, what we hear—and what we don’t—can drastically shift the narrative of a space, in synthesis with what we see.
But this extends beyond sound. Since perception is fundamentally multisensory and interpretive, space isn’t shaped by one modality alone. Light, material, acoustics, movement, temperature, rhythm—all co-produce spatial experience. And what we bring to that moment—our expectations, cultural frameworks, or memories—co-produces it, too.
Crucially, spatial experience is rarely solitary. We usually share spaces with others, and even when we don’t, our interpretations are shaped by social and cultural context. We experience rooms together, not alone. We learn how to behave in spaces, how to perform them, and what they’re “meant” to feel like. A concert hall carries different codes and expectations than a subway tunnel or a childhood bedroom.
This makes space intersubjective—something constructed in the relation between people. The experience of space includes an awareness of how others perceive it. Whether through shared listening, collective attention, or cultural ritual, space is constantly being co-produced in dialogue.
From this perspective, the designer doesn’t work with space as a fixed entity—they work with space as a dynamic, emergent process. To design space is to compose relationships: between bodies and objects, senses and meanings, individuals and collectives.
This also explains why identical physical environments can be experienced in profoundly different ways: space doesn’t exist solely in the structure. It exists in the encounter.
This understanding has changed how I think about spatial practice. It’s not just about building environments or designing sound—it’s about shaping the conditions under which a space can be felt, remembered, interpreted, or shared.
Practice-based research at spæs lab
These ideas have developed over time through my practice of designing sound for scenographic projects, and they’ve taken on depth and direction in the context of spæs lab for spatial aesthetics in sound.
At spæs, our activities blend sound-based artistic practice with spatial theory and design research across disciplines. The conversations, listening sessions, field trips, and collaborative reflections we engage in provide a fertile ground for this ongoing inquiry into what space is—and how we might approach it differently. For now, I consider this conception of space a working hypothesis: a way to shift the conversation, to open up spatial thinking toward more relational, perceptual, and culturally aware practices.
A Shift in Thinking
We often take space for granted. It’s always there—around us, beneath us, within us. But things can get complicated when we ask how space is designed and produced, and what shapes that experience.
This working conception of space has emerged through practice, reflection, and research. It is a shift away from fixed definitions toward a more dynamic idea: space is not something we simply move through but something we participate in and co-produce—sensorially, socially, and imaginatively.
For designers, artists, and researchers, this raises a vital question:
What kind of spatial experiences are we really creating?
Not just what’s built or arranged—but what’s felt, remembered, interpreted, and shared.
How do these ideas resonate—or collide—with your own experiences of space?
Further Readings
Here are selected texts and materials that inform the ideas shared in this article. They reflect the interdisciplinary background of my ongoing research on space, sound, and perception—within and beyond the context of spæs lab.
spæs Lab Publications
• Scherzer, J. – Sound: A Dynamic, Emergent, and Contextual Phenomenon. Proposes sound as a perceptual and cultural phenomenon, central to the co-creation of space. Read online• Sharma, G. K. – Toward a Lab for Concrete Utopia – Artistic Strategies in Shared Environments. Reflects on speculative spatial practices as tools for imagining and enacting possible futures. Read online
• Scherzer, J. – The Future of Spatial Audio – A Localization in Immersive Space. Explores the creative challenges and opportunities of spatial audio in immersive environments. Read online
• Sharma, G. K. – Surrounded by Immersion: Means of Post-Democratic Warfare. A critical perspective on how immersive environments are entangled with strategies of control and affective manipulation. Read online
• Scherzer, J. – What is Spatial Audio? Introduces spatial audio as an artistic and conceptual practice, emphasizing its perceptual and aesthetic dimensions. Read online
Perception, Embodiment, and Phenomenology
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty – Phenomenology of Perception. A foundational work on embodied perception—how we inhabit and construct space through the body.• Varela, Thompson & Rosch – The Embodied Mind. Introduces enactivism, framing perception as active, embodied, and context-bound.
• J.J. Gibson – The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Defines “affordances” and argues that perception is shaped through movement and interaction.
• Stein, B.E. & Meredith, M.A. – The Merging of the Senses. Landmark study on multisensory integration, showing how sensory modalities co-shape perception.
Atmosphere, Objects, and Ontology
• Gernot Böhme – Atmosphere as the Fundamental Concept of a New Aesthetics. Explores how environments produce affective atmospheres that we sense before we analyze.• Graham Harman – Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. Proposes that objects always exceed perception, reframing our understanding of spatial presence.
• Rodaway, P. – Sensuous Geographies. Investigates the relationship between body, sense, and place through phenomenological geography.
Sound and Sonic Perception
• Grimshaw, M. & Garner, T. – Sonic Virtuality. Argue that sound is not just heard, but perceived through context, expectation, and memory.• Sharma, G. K. – Komponieren mit skulpturalen Klangphänomenen in der Computermusik. Doctoral dissertation introducing the aesthetic potential of sculptural sound phenomena.
• Sharma, G. K. – Aural Sculpturality. Explores the spatiality of sound through its sculptural and temporal qualities.
• Sharma, G. K. – Fluid Architectures and Aural Sculpturality. In: The Routledge Companion to the Sound of Space. Positions sonic environments as fluid, affective architectures.
• Scherzer, J. – Sound als Erzählebene in narrativen Räumen. Discusses the narrative potential of sound in spatial storytelling contexts.
• De Marco, R. – The Art of Designing Sound for Spaces. A practical and aesthetic exploration of sound scenography in spatial design.
Museums, Space, and Multisensory Design
• Beliveau, J. E. – Audio Elements: Understanding Current Uses of Sound in Museum Exhibits. A master’s thesis mapping the uses of sound in exhibition contexts and visitor engagement. Read the thesis• Cortez, A. – Museums as Sites for Displaying Sound Materials. Proposes a five-use framework for integrating sound meaningfully in exhibitions. Read the article
• Levent, N. S., Pascual-Leone, A. & Lacey, S. (Eds.) – The Multisensory Museum. Explores cross-sensory perception in museums through perspectives from neuroscience, design, and education.
• Brückner, U. R., Greci, L., Popp, S., & Schilling, S. – Synaesthetic Translation of Perspectives. A visual and conceptual sketchbook on scenographic translation across senses.
Cultural Theory and Spatial Sociology
• Löw, M. – The Sociology of Space. Proposes a theory of relational space, where material and symbolic structures are co-constituted. Read online• Rau, S. – Räume: Konzepte, Wahrnehmungen, Nutzungen. Investigates how physical spaces are embedded with political, emotional, and cultural meaning.
• Günzel, S. – Raum: Eine kulturwissenschaftliche Einführung. Offers a cultural studies introduction to space as a concept shaped by media, language, and technology.
